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18.57 The reversal of fortune for the rebels since the airstrikes is remarkable - from a defeated retreating force pursued by Gaddafi's powerful army, they now seem to be making rapid progress, chasing Gaddafi's fleeing forces. Reports this evening say they have reached as far as Brega, the next town west along the road from Ajdabiyah, and perhaps farther. Will they now be able to chase them along the road to Sirte, the town they hoped to march on a few weeks ago? The city is a major Gaddafi stronghold and may the site of the next significant battle.

"We are in the centre of Brega," Abdelsalam al-Maadani told AFP by telephone. "Gaddafi's forces are on the retreat and should now be at Al-Bisher 20 miles west of Brega." AFP said a journalist travelling with them confirmed seeing rebels in control of the centre of the oil town, and said government forces had completely withdrawn.

Is this the beginning of a rout for Gaddafi forces in the east?

18.47 Most Germans support Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision not to get involved in Libya, an opinion poll has showed, even as criticism of her policy grew within her own party. The poll carried out for the weekly publication Focus showed 56 percent were in favour of Germany's abstention in the United Nations Security Council resolution authorising outside military intervention in Libya to stop civilian casualties.

Berlin also declined to take part in NATO's naval enforcement of an arms embargo against Libya. The poll of 1,000 people showed 36 percent considered the UN vote abstention to have been a mistake, an opinion shared by some members of Mrs Merkel's right-wing Christian Democrat (CDU) party.

Former defence minister Volker Ruehe branded it an "error of historic dimensions whose long-term consquences will be unavoidable," in an interview to be published Sunday in the weekly Der Spiegel. "The pillars of party policy have been destroyed by this stance, the result of a combination of absence of leadership and incompetence," he claimed.

I was reported to the security forces and told I had no choice but to come. I thought I would be killed or jailed otherwise.

Gaddafi has never been a good man, he has never convinced me of his cause, and the morale among his troops has never been high.

But I didn't ever want any kind of fighting between Libyans, I thought that would never happen. I would rather things change in a peaceful way than fighting each other.

17.35 Ajdabiya was "100 percent in the hands of our forces, and we are pursuing Gaddafi's forces on the road to Brega" said Shamsiddin Abdulmollah, a rebel spokesman.

17.03 Russia's chief of staff, General Nikolai Makarov, said that the air strikes have not been effective.

Air (strikes) as I see it have not given them results.

If their aim was to topple the regime of Gaddafi, then probably they will not manage without a ground phase. I would not rule it out.

He reaffirmed Russia's position that it would not join the international operation, saying that "there is not even any thought of this."

16.33 Gaddafi's forces are attacking the city of Misrata from the west and the east, a rebel told Reuters.

There is heavy shelling. They are also trying to bring in soldiers.

From the east, they are shelling with mortars and artillery the port and areas around it. There is the main fuel tank in the port which feeds the central part of the city and (there are) also thousands of workers mainly Egyptians who fled and stayed at the port hoping for rescue.

15.45 More on the diplomacy and preparations for the London conference on Tuesday.

David Cameron spoke by telephone to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and Qatari Prime Minister Hamed bin Jassem, who both confirmed they would be attending the international conference on Libya in London on Tuesday.

Downing Street said Mr Cameron welcomed the Qatari air force's first flight in support of the no-fly zone as a clear signal of the Arab world's commitment to enforcing UN Security Council resolutions.

15.05 Rob Crilly, our man in eastern Libya, tweets:

@robcrillymassive explosion behind us in ajdabiya. Certain it was people messing with dumped and damaged munitions. Awful business #libya

14.25 In case you missed it, here is the footage of the Libyan woman, who claimed to be beaten and raped by Gaddafi's men, being taken out from the Tripoli journalists' hotel.

13.56 A graphic description of the horrific aftermath of airstrikes from Sara Hussein, an AFP reporter on the scene near Ajdabiyah:

The body lies on its back, the charred head staring upwards, the right arm bent and the hand reaching out, everything below the upper torso gone - the remains of a soldier from Gaddafi's forces. The man's curly hair is still visible atop his scorched face. Standing over him, locals from the town of Ajdabiya take pictures and stare wide-eyed.

The body is one of dozens strewn on the road outside of Ajdabiya, a key eastern town that sits at the junction of roads leading to the oil town of Tobruk and the rebel-stronghold of Benghazi. Ajdabiyah was the scene of fierce fighting, and what locals describe as a brutal siege by Gaddafi's forces, which ended in the early hours of Saturday morning, after two days of heavy coalition airstrikes.

The damage caused by the aerial bombardment is astonishing. Body parts - some identifiable as such, pink and covered with flies, others little more than piles of ash - are visible next to blankets and the carcasses of tanks. A medical team from the city works to clear the bodies from the site, loading one after another from a stretcher into the back of a white pick-up truck. Volunteers wearing blue-green face masks try to cover the bodies.

One doctor, Osama Al-Qasy, estimates at least 21 bodies have already been put into the truck at the site, a few kilometres outside of Adjabiya's gate leading west. "But there are so many body parts, pieces, that we don't know yet how many there are here."

11.47The Sunday Telegraph's Colin Freeman has entered the centre of Ajdabiyah, which is now under rebel control.

He says:

Lots of pumped-up people firing guns everywhere - all in celebration. No signs of Gaddafi troops, at least in the centre of town. Some damage to buildings in the centre but far from completely flattened - most of the damage seems to be on the outskirts. Not many civilian residents left, most had already departed, apart from men who were fighting for the rebels. Now people are starting to pour in from outside.

11.29 The latest from Damien McElroy in Tripoli;

Libya's army has retreated from Ajdabiyah under fire from the international coalition which is using its might to back an opposition offensive, Khaled Kaim, Libya's deputy foreign minister, has said.

Tripoli said it would protest to the UN Security Council over the involvement of international forces in weakening the control of Libyan forces over the frontline town of Ajbadiyah, which fell to the rebels this morning.

Mr Kaim said the Libyan armed forces had undertaken a tactical pullback. "The involvement of the coaltion was very direct. They were very involved - that's why the Libyan armed forces decided to leave Ajdabiyah," he said.

The aerial attacks on Libyan positions demonstrated foreign forces were attempting to spark a civil war. "What they are doing now is trying to push the country to a civil war," he said.

Footage from on-board a RAF Tornado fighter jet as it targets and destroys a tank while on operations in Libya

11.25 Libyan government forces pulled out from the city of Ajdabiyah following an air assault by Western coalition forces, a senior government official said.

Shocking scenes in Libya as woman condemns the brutality of the regime and state agents engage in open brawl with foreign journalists trying to talk to the traumatised woman. I'll let Reuters take up the story.

A weeping Libyan woman made a desperate plea for help on Saturday, slipping into a Tripoli hotel full of foreign journalists to show bruises and scars she said had been inflicted on her by Muammar Gaddafi's militiamen.

As reporters gathered to hear her story, security guards grabbed the woman, bundled her into a car and drove her away following a brawl in which several journalists were beaten.

The woman, Eman al-Obaidi, said she was arrested at a checkpoint in Tripoli because she is from the city of Benghazi, the bastion of a rebel insurgency against Gaddafi's rule.

10.26Libyan rebel fighters have recaptured the whole of the strategic town of Ajdabiyah, including the western gate that had been held by Muammar Gaddafi's forces, Reuters witnesses and rebel fighters said.

Gaddafi troops were retreating southwest back toward the oil town of Brega, the fighters said.

There were signs of a heavy battle at the western gate, a green steel structure at the edge of the desert.

10.18 Moving back to Syria, and our Middle East correspondent Adrian Blomfield has been closely watching developments.

The name of Assad in one of the world's most repressive regimes in sacrosanct. Even a hint of whispered criticism would be enough to get you carted off to prison.

And now, from the city of Homs we are seeingthis extraordinary footageof protesters tearing down a billboard picture of Hafez al-Assad, the president's late father and predecessor. A statue of Hafez was also badly damaged by crowds in Daraa.

This is an extraordinary act of iconoclasm - Assad pere is supposed to be revered even more Assad fils - to use a North Korean parallel, he is the "Great Leader" to his son's "Dear Leader".

10.05 President Barack Obama has told Americans that the military mission in Libya is clear, focused and limited, and that it has already saved ''countless'' civilian lives.

In his weekly radio address, Mr Obama said:

So make no mistake, because we acted quickly, a humanitarian catastrophe has been avoided and the lives of countless civilians - innocent men, women and children - have been saved.

Our military mission in Libya is clear and focused.

I firmly believe that when innocent people are being brutalized; when someone like Gaddafi threatens a bloodbath that could destabilize an entire region; and when the international community is prepared to come together to save many thousands of lives, then it's in our national interest to act.

This military effort is part of our larger strategy to support the Libyan people and hold the Gaddafi regime accountable. And every day, the pressure on Gaddafi and his regime is increasing.

09.27 Back to Libya, where Reuters confirm that the rebels are in control of Adjabiya - but that Gaddafi's forces still hold the western gate to the town.

On Saturday morning the debris of the battle was scattered around the eastern gate, a Reuters witness said. Four destroyed Gaddafi tanks, ammunition boxes, and empty shell cases and boxes were scattered over the sand dunes, the witness said. Rebel fighter Sarhag Agouri said:

Eveyrthing was destroyed last night by our forces.

Ajdabiyah is a ghost town. Now there are only dead bodies and families who don't know what to do. We are in the town but they still have the other gate.

09.23 And across the region to Syria, protesters are using Facebook to call for more demonstrations on Saturday. Remember 55 people were reported to have been killed yesterday in Syria.

"Today, Saturday... popular uprisings in all Syrian governorates," read a posting on The Syria Revolution 2011, which has garnered the support of over 86,000 fans.

The "main goal" of the Facebook group, which has pages in English and Arabic featuring videos of protests and scenes of police brutality, is "freedom in Syria" with postings stating the "intifada against injustice has begun."

09.20 Political developments in Yemen: Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi said he hopes for a deal on a transition of power on Saturday, and that the time frame of a transition by President Ali Abdullah Saleh could be negotiated.

"I hope it will be today, before tomorrow," Mr Qirbi, who is serving as caretaker foreign minister, told Reuters.

I think the time period is something that can be negotiated. It shouldn't be really an obstacle to reach an agreement.

This, in a nutshell, is Gaddafi’s modus operandi. He bears grudges heavily, is never shy of wreaking blood-soaked havoc or proffering deadly threats – and has next to no sense of reality outside his own paranoid bunker.

09.01 Here is more on Obama's plans to address the nation on Monday, following criticism that he hasn't explained the Libyan decision-making process.